


Time-Keeping

by thingswithwings



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Closeted, F/F, F/M, Homophobia, M/M, Military
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-03
Updated: 2007-12-03
Packaged: 2017-10-24 04:48:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingswithwings/pseuds/thingswithwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>McKay shows up at Sheppard's quarters at 20:00 on Tuesday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time-Keeping

**Author's Note:**

> Contains a fairly bleak picture of institutionalized homophobia/oppression.

  
McKay shows up at Sheppard's quarters at 20:00 on Tuesday, carrying a movie or a chess board. He leaves between 22:00 and 23:00, carrying a movie or a chess board, looking as immaculate as he did when he entered.

Sheppard shows up at McKay's quarters at 19:00 on Thursday, carrying a deck of cards or a dvd of a game: football, hockey, whatever. He leaves between 23:00 and 23:30, carrying a deck of cards or a dvd of a game, looking as immaculate as he did when he entered.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Doctor Brown spends time with Lieutenant Delgato, usually in Delgato's quarters. Katie always leaves looking as immaculate as she did when she entered, but sometimes Melanie, saying goodbye at the door, is visible from the hall: rumpled, her hair messed up, her buttons misaligned. This is because she works out after her duty-shift, before Katie comes by, and sometimes forgets to shower and tidy up before receiving visitors.

On Saturdays, Sheppard and Delgato run the puddlejumper flight training program. McKay and Brown eat a meal together, someplace public. McKay holds her hand awkwardly, or Brown kisses him close-lipped and too-fast: this is because they are both nervous, both inexperienced, both bad with relationships.

There is a rumour going around (there has always been a rumour going around) that Sheppard and Teyla are sleeping together. Sheppard disavows these rumours without defensiveness; the fact that he is so careful, so thoughtful, so emotionless, in his disavowal, only proves how much he cares for Teyla and for her honour.

One day, in the lab, several scientists overhear Sheppard and McKay arguing; in tones too low to hear, at first, then rising. McKay's voice: _I'm not going to fucking marry her_ , cut off at the end of the sentence, clipped neatly as if by garden shears.

Delgato's always been followed by the whispers; there are few enough women in the armed services, and fewer still in the Marines. She is caught, once, with Major Lorne, shoving him up against the wall in the little alcove off the cafeteria. Stupid, really; they both only narrowly avoid fraternization charges. But after that the whispers change: _butch_ and _slut_ , but no longer _lesbo_ or _dyke_ – it'll do.

On Saturdays, lying with Katie in her bed after mediocre sex, Rodney thinks, _we're not getting away with anything_.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, lying with John in his bed after mediocre sex, Rodney thinks, _there's nothing to get away with._


End file.
